


busy thinking about boys

by nekomimichan (orphan_account)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Awkward Crush, Co-workers, Developing Friendships, Fluff, Hinted Kim Minseok | Xiumin/Lu Han, M/M, Minor Byun Baekhyun/Zhang Yi Xing | Lay, Summer, Teenagers, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 03:48:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19287496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/nekomimichan
Summary: wu yifan is the human embodiment of awkwardwritten for exoseasonalfest round #2





	busy thinking about boys

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ExoSeasonalFest](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExoSeasonalFest/gifts).



> **Prompt Petal:** #54: Yifan did not expect THAT underneath his coworker's grandpa sweaters and baggy jeans.  
>  **Author's Note:** honestly this fic went through so many modifications & i wanted to write so much more but due to technical difficulties and finals week i had to rush some of it so i'd like to apologize to the fic itself, you deserved better... also thank you dearest mod honeybee for giving me a much-needed extention, you are the sweetest and i love you, and dear prompter, i hope you'll be satisfied with what i've done with your idea, i wanted to make them high schoolers so as not to overthirst both myself and yifan... folks, please do enjoy reading~

There are plenty of reasons as to why Summer is the best season of them all. First off, there’s no school; no homework to deal with, no annoying classmates that make fun of your new haircut, no teachers, no exams... Just the idea of a considerably long break from the school life is enough for any average high school student; but that’s not all Summer has up its sleeves. Summer has hot, sunny weather; Summer has beaches and the salty sea water; Summer has all the free time in the world and Summer is almost the perfect sweet escape from reality and all the responsibility burden.

While the seventeen-year-old Wu Yifan thinks the same way as well, for him Summer also represents job hunting. When the busy high school life is no more relevant, but his mental clock is forcing him to wake up at six in the morning, time seems to move painfully slow for this particular teenager. He is too well-rested to go back to sleep and there’s so much of the day ahead of him whereas he hasn’t got anything to do. Obviously, the first few days are spent rolling around in his bed, binge-watching all the TV shows he neglected because of school and the workload and maybe starting a book he never really will commit to finish; but then there’s _chaos_. It has turned into a never-ending loop for him now, for this routine has been repeating itself every single Summer for the past five years, and he knows that in the end he’ll be drained out of all energy and the will to live if he won’t do anything about it.

He had tried a lot of things, to be fair. He tried working out, going out, travelling, meeting new people – but they only kept him busy for _some_ time. One day, a year ago around mid-July, while he was making his way downtown, walking fast, he came across a small gift shop with a sign that read ‘ **looking for part-time employee”** plastered on one of its ground to ceiling windows. He hadn’t tried something like that out yet and it was a short-term job anyway, so he thought _why not_ , and decided to give it a go.

Apparently, it was the right decision to make because sixteen-year-old Wu Yifan realized just how easy the long and seemingly never-ending Summer days seemed to pass when he was indulged in work, or people, or a store, or – things. One part-time job followed another, and then another, and then it was the end of Summer. He had his bank account filled up and he realized that for the first time in his life he wasn’t worried about what he had to do in order not to die of boredom inside his hot, hot room during Summertime.

-

Now it is Summer once again and Wu Yifan is going through a list of available part-time jobs he’d found. He’ sitting on the old maroon couch in the living room in front of the television, holding an ice-cold mint lemonade in one hand. The list is not very long, for he was very picky this time, he only included jobs that required him to spend his time outdoors, his mother has strictly told him that there was no way she was going to let her son lock himself between four walls without getting any of that precious vitamin D from the Summer sun. He’s seriously considering crossing out either camp counsellor or pool cleaner, going back-and-forth between the two and quietly doing an eenie-meenie-miney-mo to decide on which one to cancel first when he’s intrigued by a certain job offer out of the blue. He doesn’t even remember writing this one down, maybe his mother had written it down for him, he can’t be sure, but it almost feels like love at first sight; **Part-Time worker for the Car Wash** , the title says, **at Gallery Antares**. It almost feels too good to be true, but no, the offer is really out there and Yifan himself has the contact information presented to him on a diamond plate just like that, that simple. For anyone lacking the necessary background information, landing a simple car washing job at an automobile gallery may not seem like much, but for Yifan it’s a childhood dream coming true. The thing about Antares is that it’s one of the biggest and the classiest automobile galleries in the entire country, and the cars sold and/or showcased there are no joke – ranging from the latest or unreleased models to antique collector cars; everything Yifan has ever dreamt of at least being in close proximity.

One thing about Yifan is that he absolutely adores cars – he just loves them so much. He knows for a fact that the second he starts making money he might actually start collecting cars; miniature model toys under normal conditions yes, but if he ever makes it big somehow, he _knows_ that he won’t hesitate for even a second to spend a stupid amount of money on rare pieces. As if the sole existence of Antares is not enough, he’s heard from the whispers on the street that there’s a chance for this year’s Auto Expo to be held at the said gallery, which just makes Yifan’s breath hitch with the possibilities this may hold. He imagines himself with all those cars he’s only ever been lucky enough to see in his dreams, he imagines himself touching those cars, cleaning them diligently, seeing each and every detail, and hell, maybe even driving them– it’s too much. It’s all too much yes, but also just enough for him to grab his smart phone and dial the contact number with shaking hands, he wets his chapped lips nervously while waiting for the receiver to pick up the call.

He’s managed to acquire an interview date with the people from the gallery with just a simple phone call, and he just can’t contain his excitement. The person that was on the line, Lee Donghae as he’d introduced himself, has told Yifan that there’s only one open spot left for the job offer, which only made Yifan more restless. On one hand he’s a little relieved to hear that he’ll have co-workers there to take some of the work load off his shoulders, but on the other hand this also means that he’ll have to share the cars with other people; if he manages to land the job, at least. He applies to a few more jobs just in case he can’t make it to Antares, he slacks off a bit though, mentally rejecting each and every possibility that includes him not getting the job at the carwash. By the time his parents are home he’s already stopped going through his list, instead Yifan has settled on staring up at the ceiling as he’s sprawled across the couch, making up scenarios in his mind about Antares, about the cars, about the Auto Expo.

-

His mental clock wakes him up at the crack of dawn again, one would think he’d be used to it by now. Yifan drags himself into the bathroom to slap some cold water into his face to properly wake up, he stares into his reflection on the mirror, his broad shoulders and his bony clavicles, the spaghetti-strapped undervest exposing a lot of skin. It’s summer after all, the season to reduce the amount of clothing being worn after such a long time of clinging to cardigans or sweatshirts. He chuckles at his reflection quietly, his hair’s gotten long since the summer break, black locks reaching mid-nape, he runs a hand through them. He has no intention of cutting them short, in fact, he wants to have them reaching below his shoulders, he wants to sway them around like Prince Charming from Shrek. He’s suddenly reminded of the job interview he’ll be having in a few hours, he knows that he still has plenty of time until then, but still, he just can’t help but fuss about it. He pushes himself away from the sink and locks the door of the bathroom before he starts stripping out of his clothes, deciding to soak himself under the freezing water to start the day off with a cooling sensation that may calm down his twitching.

By the time he’s dressed into a pair of shorts and a tank top, his parents have already woken up, he walks in on them preparing breakfast in the kitchen. He has told them about the Antares opportunity during dinner the previous night, not missing the way his mother smirked at him, as if she had known it beforehand. He strolls into the kitchen in three big steps and hugs his mother from behind, nuzzling his face into the back of the tall woman’s shoulder.

“Morning ma’.”

He mumbles into the soft cotton shirt she has on, his mother reaches an arm behind to ruffle his hair.

“Morning sweetie.”

She greets back, he then gets elbowed in the ribs by his father.

“Now that you have finally decided to join us, be of some use and cut the mushrooms for me, will you?”

Yifan groans but does nothing to protest, getting his long libs off off his mother in order to do as his father says.

Despite his resting bitch face and questionably intimidating appearance, Wu Yifan is the exact definition of what one might refer to as a Mama’s Boy. He still remembers the first days of his freshman year at high school; people being scared to approach him because of his appearance, coming home to cry while hugging his mother’s knees… He sighs as he flips the mushroom omelette he’s prepared. He’s used to it by now, how it takes some time for most people to warm up to him, but just because he’s used to it doesn’t make it any less hurtful. He crosses his fingers and quietly wishes for all to be well in Antares, if he makes it in, that is.

-

Wu Yifan is nothing but a mess of nerves as he walks the stairs up to the gallery and into the room where he is to be interviewed in. He thinks he has every right to be nervous, it’s all his seventeen-year-old self has been dreaming of anyway, of course he’s nervous. He swallows down several lumps before knocking on the door of the interview room and feels the sweat prickling inside his palms letting out weird squeaky sounds. The door is yanked open immediately and a shorter boy just about his age pops into his sight, which leaves Yifan a little confused, because this person does not look anything related to a Mr. Lee Donghae. The boy looks up at him and their eyes meet, he has a pair of prescribed glasses on that makes his eyes look bigger than they actually are, and for some reason he’s wearing a hoodie in mid-July. The rather weird exterior makes Yifan’s eyebrows furrow in confusion and the smaller boy rushes out of his way immediately, Yifan sighs and decides to ignore the interaction, entering the room instead.

Lee Donghae turns out to be the most admirable thirty-year-old Yifan has ever met. He overall has a really chill aura and the interview flows out naturally and smoothly, almost as if it was just a regular conversation between two old friends. He’s not very hard on honorifics and he offers Yifan a slice of lemon cheesecake at some point, which Yifan kindly refuses, and the questions he asks Yifan feels as though he’s genuinely trying to get to know him better. Of course Yifan was relaxed and eager to answer by the end of the interview, he opens up to Donghae carelessly and Donghae seems to find his love for cars and enthusiasm to work at the gallery amusing. By the end of the interview they’ve managed to form a rapport so close that Donghae makes fun of his super formal attire; the dress shirt and the neatly ironed dress pants to be exact, and he throws his legs on his own table, showing off the cotton shorts he’s supporting. Yifan maybe likes him a little too much.

Donghae tells Yifan to wait by the lobby after their designated interview time finally ends, apparently you don’t have to wait for a week or anything to hear about your interview results here, Donghae just needs to talk to some people. The second Yifan leaves the room he feels giddy and nervous all over again, his feet feel like they are a completely different entity as he skips down the stairs and over to the lobby. The Hoodie Boy from earlier is there, Yifan forces out a smile when their eyes meet again.

“Hey,”

He greets, feeling the urge to speak in order to distract himself from the anticipation building in his chest while waiting for Donghae to do whatever he was going to do. The Hoodie Boy returns the awkward smile.

“Hi.”

He says, Yifan shifts on his feet nervously.

“Were you here for an interview as well?”

He asks, Hoodie Boy’s face lightens up a little and he takes a few steps closer.

“Oh no, I already work here- sort of. My family owns the place.”

He says the last sentence as if it was no big of a deal and Yifan just stares at him in shock.

“You _own_ Antares?”

He repeats, blinking his eyes in awe. Hoodie Boy lets out the cutest giggle Yifan has ever heard.

“I mean, yeah, in a way.”

He laughs again, leaving Yifan starstruck in a way under this new knowledge.

“I’m Junmyeon.”

He says at last, extending a hand towards Yifan, it takes the latter some time to shake off his daze and shake the much smaller hand. Junmyeon’s hand is soft, he notes.

“Yifan.”

He croaks out, Junmyeon chuckles again.

“You must really like this place, are you okay?”

Feeling his cheeks heat up in embarrassment, Yifan ducks his head to the side awkwardly and coughs.

“Yeah I- Yeah…”

Junmyeon grins. Yifan feels like the other party is expecting him to say a little more so he has no other option but to turn his face and start talking again, he clears his throat.

“The thing is, I love cars.”

He starts, Junmyeon nods, Yifan notices that the Hoodie Boy’s hoodie is of some expensive brand, which is not exactly surprising when you consider the fact that he quite literally owns one of the biggest auto galleries in the entire country.

“I mean I think it’s pretty obvious why I am so excited to like… work here, I guess.”

Before Junmyeon can comment on anything, Donghae appears by the stairs, making a huge amount of noise and still wearing his cotton sweat shorts.

“Fanfan, my dude, I have this one question for you.”

Yifan straightens up, from the corner of his eye he can see Junmyeon smirking.

“How soon can you start?”

The grin that shapes Yifan’s lips is brighter than that of a toddler at a birthday party, Donghae returns the enthusiasm with a grin almost as stupid as his.

“I mean, I’d say today but my mom would kill me if anything happened to these clothes.”

Yifan replies sincerely, making both Junmyeon and Donghae laugh. Donghae slings an arm over his shoulder and ruffles his carefully styled hair, pulling him towards the back of the hall.

“Let me give you a little tour today then, you’ll meet the rest of the guys and I’ll let you go back to mama to deliver the news. How does that sound?”

Feeling his cheeks heat up once more with Donghae’s clear teasing, Yifan nods his head, Junmyeon shoves his hands inside the pockets of his hoodie and follows them a few steps from behind.

After a brief tour of the entire gallery building, Donghae takes him to the garage-like area where they store the cars and do their maintenance. One can tell that quite a lot of money was spent on this part by just one look at it, Yifan skips a few steps in excitement and Donghae lets him go with a laugh.

“Come out kids, meet your new cellmate!”

He yells, Junmyeon cracks up at the ridiculous joke. Yifan has to stop ogling the garage for a while because his co-workers start appearing one by one, he finds himself shaking a little on his feet because, _wow_. The guys that appear one by one are probably around his age, or maybe a little older than him, he can’t really tell, but boy do they make his gaydars go absolutely wild.

First of all, every single one of them are shirtless; second of all, they’re all pretty ripped. Three boys stand before him; one of them has chubby cheeks and kind of looks like a chipmunk, the other has soft features and dove-like eyes, the one wearing a toolbelt has dimples and wet black curls sticking on his forehead. Donghae takes the first step to introduce them.

“This is Minseok, he will take care of polishing the exterior and the interior after you’re done cleaning.”

He starts, pointing to the chipmunk guy, Minseok waves a hand. Donghae moves on to the pretty one.

“Lu Lu here will be your partner cleaning cars; he’ll show you what to do.”

Yifan nods awkwardly, trying not to take in all the eye candy this Lu Lu guy is offering him, he gets an eyeroll in response.

“I’m Lu Han.”

He re-introduces himself and Yifan simply nods. Donghae points to the dimpled one.

“And this is our mechanic Yixing, he’ll look into the technical stuff both before and after the rest of you do your job.”

Yixing gives him a soft smile.

Yifan thinks that’s all there is to it, but before he knows it Donghae is glancing behind him with a smirk.

“Ah, I believe you’ve met our Myeonnie already, huh?”

Yifan turns his head back to take a better look at Junmyeon; in his fancy hoodie and mom jeans and burgundy Vans sneakers he doesn’t look like he’ll be doing anything tiring anytime soon. Donghae clears his throat to get the eyes back on himself.

“He’s here to check your process and the situation of the cars, and  basically do the paperwork and report to his daddy and such, rich kid privilege and all.”

Junmyeon groans as the rest of the team snickers, Yifan finds himself smirking as well. Donghae cracks his knuckles.

“Well then, Fanfanie, you can feel free to stay back and observe how things go around here, but I can’t promise you on behalf of these fuckers that they won’t try to get your clothes dirty.”

Lu Han lets out a movie-villain-like laughter, Yifan decides to just come back the next morning.

“Yeah, I’ll just come tomorrow, I have stuff to do back at home.”

Donghae nods his head.

“Alright then, I expect you here by eleven AM, do not be late.”

He purses his lips, and then shrugs.

“I mean I don’t think anyone would care if you were late, really. But our little Myeon Bunny here can be a pain in the arse, don’t let the adorkable exterior fool you.”

When Yifan turns his head back to look at Junmyeon he gets a cocky eyebrow-raise in return, _noted_ , he thinks to himself.

He plays video games until it’s late and announces the news to his parents during dinner, telling them about Donghae and Junmyeon and the rest. Before he goes to bed that night, he receives a text from Donghae, telling him to wear clothes that he can risk losing forever. Yifan chuckles as he types out a response.

-

The next morning Yifan wakes up at the crack of dawn as usual, even more excited than the previous day because this time it really is happening. He feels way too energetic for such early hours, so he decides to blow off some steam by going out on an early morning jog. Throwing on a pair of sweatpants and an old shirt he’s off the house in the blink of an eye.

One thing Yifan loves about the neighbourhood is that he’s lived here his whole life, knows everything like the back of his hand; the familiarity. He jogs up to a park a few blocks away from his house. The park has a lot of trees and a special playground area designed for dogs, which obviously draws dog owners to the park and the existence of said animals makes Yifan’s day a lot brighter.

Throughout his jog he pets about eleven dogs, and by his fourth lapse he’s already giggling to himself.

“Yo!”

A somewhat familiar voice calls up to him and Yifan slows down his steps before finally coming to a stop, upon turning his head he’s surprised to see a familiar face jogging up to him. It’s Lu Han, from the car wash, Yifan’s a little surprised and a little impressed that they recognize one another.

“Hello.”

He greets the wheezing Lu Han, the latter bends over and holds onto his knees as he coughs, muttering unintelligible curses about a cat, or a handful of cats – Yifan fails to catch the exact context. After Lu Han manages to pull himself back together, he straightens up and places a hand on Yifan’s shoulder.

“Fancy seeing you here this morning, couldn’t sleep?”

His tone sounds playful, so Yifan offers him a smile.

“Nah, I tend to wake up early.”

Lu Han tuts, shaking his head.

“Those are bad habits, kid.”

Yifan chuckles again, which seems to brighten Lu Han a little.

“Would you be up for a race?”

Yifan considers the offer thoroughly, he has time for one or two more laps.

“Do you think you’d be okay? You quite literally almost died trying to come here.”

Lu Han raises his hand in protest, leaning back a little.

“I inhaled cat hair, somehow. I’m good to go, unless you’re scared.”

The challenge in his voice and the glint in his eyes rile Yifan up and he smirks. With a nod of his head they’re off to a race.

Lu Han turns out to be a tougher opponent than he seems, he wins the race over an edge and later on they’re both left panting by the dog playground, not much different than the occupants of said place.

“I wish you’d given me a heads-up,”

Yifan starts, trying to catch his breath.

“About being the Chinese Sonic the Hedgehog, I mean.”

Lu Han laughs out loud at the comment, he’s also dizzy and breathless but he collects himself faster than Yifan does.

“Heads up, I’m the soccer captain in my school.”

Yifan shakes his head in amusement, laughing and occasionally coughing. Lu Han sits down next to him on the bench and they watch the dogs play around for a while, not having the energy to make conversation.

They bid their goodbyes after some small talk, and Yifan slightly limps back home. His parents have woken up by the time he makes it back inside, they greet him with jazz music playing in the kitchen and Yifan waves them a hand before making a beeline for the bathroom. Despite the unbearably hot Summer weather he takes a hot shower, tending to his legs and massaging all the lumps and the tensed muscles within reach. He showers diligently. While he assumes that the heat might drive him wild after such a shower, he also feels like Lu Han would not hesitate to splash him with ice cold water at the car wash, whether he asked for it or not.

-

Yifan’s mother drops him off, for the gallery was on her way, and Yifan kisses her on the cheek and waves her goodbye until the car is off sight.

“Good morning, was that your mom?”

Junmyeon greets him in a sweet tone, Yifan turns his head to greet back. This time Junmyeon’s wearing a long-sleeved blue silk button up and a pair of baggy dress pants underneath, with white sneakers to complete the look.

“Yeah.”

He croaks out awkwardly, a bit ashamed to stand in front of such an effortlessly expensive person like Junmyeon in his cargo pants and washed out tank top. Junmyeon’s face brightens, he holds open the door for Yifan.

“Ah, I wish my mom dropped me off every now and then. Come on in, you’re just on time.”

Yifan’s long hair flies around like he was in a shampoo commercial the second he steps inside and is hit with the air conditioner by the door, Junmyeon chuckles at him.

They talk about the world and the weather as they walk to the garage, the rest are already there, Yixing excitedly talking about something they’re not close enough to hear.

“Ay, he made it!”

Minseok yells, upon spotting the duo, Yifan grins.

“I sure as hell did!”

He replies. He’s taken only a few small steps towards the trio when he is hit by a sudden outburst of freezing water, making him let out a very squeaky scream.

“Welcome, I figured you could’ve used a cooling aid after overheating yourself at the park today.”

Lu Han says, not surprisingly holding the water hose in his hand. Junmyeon claps his hands.

“Enough fooling around, we have cars to check.”

Yifan rubs his hands together overly excitedly as Junmyeon leads the way to a section of the huge garage, Minseok trails behind to chat him up.

“Every morning we all collectively check on the cars that we are to work on for the day, and while Lu Han and I, and now also you, do our work, Junmyeon and Yixing go and do quality checks on the cars we’ve already prepared for the show. After they’re done Yixing either comes here to help us or stays back with Junmyeon and they check the cars that are to be prepared.”

Yifan registers the new information carefully and nods his head. The section they arrive has about a dozen cars stored, ready to get their maintenance done, Yifan feels his mouth water. He knows a lot about those cars, and apparently the auto expo rumours weren’t faux news, because there are some pieces that simply cannot be here for no reason. Junmyeon and Yixing have already started doing their check-ups by the time Yifan and Minseok arrive, Minseok pushes Yifan towards the two of them.

“Go and observe, you’ll learn what to be careful of and where to focus.”

Yifan nods his head, from the corner of his eye he spots Minseok and Lu Han staying back, chatting one another up instead.

-

Yifan realizes he is quite literally the only one having the time of his life by simply cleaning cars, but he doesn’t mind. Lu Han likes squirting water at him and Minseok, and occasionally at Yixing as well, but he seems a little intimidated by Junmyeon, but other than that Lu Han and Junmyeon seem to get along just fine.

Yifan was at first shy to take off his shirt, but Lu Han quite literally yanks the wet piece of clothing off him, almost tearing it apart, and then Minseok splashes him with soapy water and Yifan’s screaming mixes in with LuMin’s laughter. Junmyeon tuts.

“It’s your first day and you’re already slacking.”

Yifan raises his eyebrows, Minseok slaps a wet hand on Junmyeon’s bare neck, making him yelp.

“Give the kid some space, Myeonnie, I feel like he’s actually enjoying the whole cleaning thing.”

Junmyeon groans and rubs a hand over his neck, pouting at Minseok, and Yifan spaces out. Junmyeon has no right to look that cute while pouting; pink lips pursed and cheeks slightly puffed, looking up at Minseok over his eyelashes. It suddenly dawns on Yifan just how incredibly good-looking Junmyeon is actually. Yes, he has the rich boy polish to himself with his fancy clothes and fancy hair and fancy accessories; but all man-made materials aside, he has such a well-crafted face.

It takes Yifan a while to recollect himself and he sneaks a glance towards the two boys still bickering in front of him, he relaxes when he realizes that his staring dumbly was unnoticed. Just as he was getting up from the puddle of soapy water on the ground that he was lying down in, he notices Yixing looking at him with an amused expression. Yifan raises his eyebrows and Yixing copies him in return, glancing first at Junmyeon and then back again at Yifan, ending his implication with a wink. Yifan shakes his head and decides to ignore him, but the blush tinting his ears and cheeks gives him away.

-

Yifan doesn’t remember feeling so tired but also so happy before, his eyelids are dropping, and his entire body is sore as he drags himself across the doorstep and into the entrance of his house. His parents are in the living room watching a movie, they pause it when they hear their son close the front door shut and stumble into the coat hanger in the process.

“Wu Kris Yifan, you better not be coming into this house drunk off your underage head.”

His full name rings through his ears and he groans, forcefully dragging his feet into the living room and draping his body across the couch on which his very angry mother is sitting.

“Am not.”

He states simply, his mother relaxes against her seat again when the only smell her offspring is emitting is an odd mixture of sweat and car freshener. Yifan spends an awful amount of energy to get his limbs working in order to shift on the couch and lie his head down on his mother’s knees, his father laughs.

“Rough first day at work?”

He teases him, Yifan huffs out a yawn.

“It was amazing. Exhausting, but amazing.”

He yawns again.

“I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow, during breakfast.”

He mumbles. He barely makes out his father’s laughter and his mother telling him to go take a shower before dozing off into a sweet good night’s sleep.

-

The next morning Yifan wakes up a lot later than he usually did. It’s about four hours past the crack of dawn and instead of his good ol’ bed he’s sprawled across the living room couch which is too cramped for someone his height.

“Morning beautiful.”

His father greets him, Yifan groans in response to the obvious teasing.

“We haven’t had our breakfast yet, if you postpone your shower you can sit with us.”

Yifan nods his head, still groggy and dizzy from sleep. He gets off the couch while scratching his stomach and drags his feet to the bathroom by his bedroom. He slaps some sense into his face via a handful of cold tap water and does it a few more times before drying his face with a towel and properly walking to the kitchen this time.

His parents have already set the table up, his father brings out the couple mugs Yifan bought them as anniversary gifts a couple of years ago. Yifan grabs his own mug from the cupboard, a galaxy print one showing off the Scorpio constellation, and fills all the mugs with coffee.

“So, tell us about your first day at work.”

His father starts after they’re all settled down and Yifan grins.

“Ah, the guys are really nice, they warmed up to me so quick.”

He stretches out his long limbs and spreads some peanut butter on his bread slice.

“Lu Han and I washed the cars together; it required a lot more effort than washing any other car because we were to clean them up carefully in order not to cause any harm. Did you know some of the older cars required, like, some special treatment?”

His mother gives him an impressive nod, Yifan spreads some strawberry jam over the peanut butter layer.

“Lu Han’s a very fun person, very chatty, a little psycho but overall a neat dude. We jogged together yesterday; he was a soccer team captain so obviously he kicked my arse.”

His father snorts out a laugh and his mother tuts, disapproving the language but not commenting on it. Yifan takes a bite from his peanut butter and jelly toast.

“Cleaning the interior required a lot more effort than the exterior, we literally q-tipped our way out; hence why my body aches so much.”

His mother gestures him not to speak with his mouth full, Yifan nods dismissively and munches on the food faster.

“And then,”

He swallows the rest of his bite and then takes another bite, eager both to eat and talk.

“Minseok came, he went over some parts of the car while Lu Han and I rested. He has such sharp eyes, every single place we missed or wrongly cleaned he perfected it out.”

His parents give him impressive nods.

“They really take this seriously, huh?”

His father tells him, Yifan nods excitedly.

“Minseok has these really small, dainty hands and he can do a lot better job than I do with my big man hands.”

His mother almost spits out her coffee, she chuckles out, _man hands_ , under her breath after she forcefully swallows down the beverage, his father snickers at her.

“And then Yixing came to check if the car mechanics were still perfectly working and in good conditions, then Minseok did some last-minute touch ups and Junmyeon came with his folder and prepared a report about the car’s previous condition and the current one.”

His father gives some of his sausages to him, Yifan nods a thank you in his direction.

“You know, I’m glad you’re getting along with everyone. I mean yeah, sure you love cars, but it would’ve been hell if the people weren’t nice.”

Yifan nods his head, this time he finishes his mouthful before speaking.

“Junmyeon tries to be strict, but he’s just too cute. Can’t take him seriously.”

Both Yifan and his father snicker, his mother pokes him under the table with her feet.

“What kind of cute, though?”

She winks, and Yifan immediately blushes from head to toe. He simply groans in his mother’s direction.

“Mom, don’t make me regret coming out to you two…”

Both of his parents laugh. To be fair, Yifan coming out a year ago wasn’t shocking news to his parents, and even if it was a tough pill to swallow, they never showed their struggle to him. When he thinks about it that way, he feels thankful.

His parents rush out shortly after breakfast and Yifan has very little time left to clean up the dishes and take a shower, so he half-asses both of them in order to make it to the gallery on time.

-

It takes him a few days to finally get used to the new schedule and the workload, but he can’t be any happier when he wakes up in his bed one morning at the crack of dawn, feeling completely rested. The Auto Expo is officially announced to be held at Gallery Antares and Yifan pretends to be shocked upon receiving the news, he sends the emoji face with its brain exploding to the Antares group chat.

It’s a Sunday and also the off day, so he won’t be getting soaked with cold water today. He decides to go to the beach instead. The beach is not exactly close to the city centre where they live, but public transportation starts in half an hour or so and he can simply catch a bus to the beaches. Yifan scrolls through his social media feed in his bed for a while before getting bored and getting out. He packs up his beach stuff in a simple backpack, grabs his earphones and gets out of the house.

The wait at the bus stop is a shorter one, he catches the first bus to come and sits somewhere at the back. He’s glad that the guys at the car wash are unfazed by his intimidating appearance, because for all the resting bitch faces that he’s supporting he’s currently blasting f(x)’s hot summer in his earphones.

The beach is serene as he expected it to be at such early hours of the day. There aren’t many people, some old men here and there, and two families away from where Yifan himself is. The sea water at such early hours of the day is cold indeed, but there aren’t any wild waves and he also doesn’t have to worry about getting sunburnt, so all in all it provides a healing experience.

Yifan changes into a pair of blue swim trunks in the changing cubicles nearby and drops his bag on the sand not far away from where the waves reach. Public beaches don’t offer much, but at least they’re clean and free, and not many people care enough to wake up at the crack of dawn to enjoy the water so it’s just the way Yifan likes it. The water is too cold when he first steps into it, but he convinces himself to go deeper, and before he knows it, he’s all soaked.

He swims a few laps from the shore to the safety buoys and back, and when he feels too tired to get out, Yifan simply leaves his body to the water to float. The sun is gradually rising higher and higher and Yifan ends up raising a hand over the sky to block the sunshine from getting into his eyes.

He doesn’t really know what time it is, but people and especially families have started to appear one by one, so Yifan decides to return home. He swims back to the shore and shakes the water out of his hair like a dog, immediately wrapping the beach towel around his wet body. His bag is already packed, so Yifan makes a beeline for the showers without wasting any time.

Washing out the sea salt under the freezing spray feels refreshing, he sighs out loud as he washes his considerably long black locks with. The sun is rising higher by the minute and he figures he probably should hurry up if he wants to make it home in time for breakfast. Just as he was stepping out of the shower stall, an oddly familiar figure catches his eye.

 _Something feels wrong_ , he thinks. Because there’s this one guy standing right in front of him in pastel yellow swim trunks, water trickling down his hair and chest, sunlight highlighting all the important factors of his body; his face, his clavicles, his abs… Abs, is what feels out of place, because this absolutely stunning guy right in front of him looks an awful lot like Kim Junmyeon. Yes, the Kim Junmyeon that wears sweaters in mid-July, the Kim Junmyeon with chubby cheeks and a bunny-teeth smile, the Kim Junmyeon that is the bodily embodiment of the word ‘ _soft_ ’.

“Nope.”

Yifan hears himself say, and the next moment he’s turning on his heels and pacing to the changing cubicles. Just before he enters the tiny wooden room he turns back, as if to see whether he was hallucinating; it turns out he wasn’t. Kim Junmyeon, or his evil twin or maybe a completely different entity that for some reason decided to look like Kim Junmyeon with abs, was still standing there, all wet and shining and, oh Jesus, _hot_.

“Nope.”

Yifan repeats, and slams the wooden door shut after he enters the changing cubicle.

-

He can’t get the image of _that guy at the beach_ out of his head throughout the entire bus ride back home. He’s almost managed to fully convince himself that he saw wrong, that the guy was a Junmyeon lookalike, or maybe it was the sun getting in his eyes. Another thing about the whole situation is that, even if that person was not a Junmyeon, why on earth would Yifan fantasize about an **_abs_** olutely and overwhelmingly sexy Junmyeon out of the blue? He groans, and re-shuffles his playlist; Charli XCX comes on, talking about thinking about boys. Yifan groans again.

After breakfast he takes a shower, and when he’s lying on his bed in his bathrobe, he decides to do some investigation on this situation that’s been buzzing him. Yifan grabs his phone and goes through various social media sites, typing out Kim Junmyeon and a bunch of details, going out of his way to find the Kim Junmyeon he’s looking for.

It’s not his best moment, but he finds what he needs eventually. The Kim Junmyeon that he knows has accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, all of which are private. According to twitter, Junmyeon was born on May 22nd, his Instagram bio has a Gemini emoji so Yifan confirms that they’re indeed the same Junmyeon. With the new information he’s acquired, he carefully goes through Junmyeon’s old Facebook account from middle school, and then he hits the jackpot: Junmyeon indeed has a twin brother. Same birthdate, same parents, same everything; they’ve even listed one another on the family members part of Facebook. The unfortunate thing is that the guy only has dog pictures on Facebook, his Instagram profile picture is that of a digital art and on Twitter he has a full-on Girls Generation’s Taeyeon pack applied. Yifan even finds the audacity in himself to go through their parents’ social media but he only finds baby pictures of the boys, so he gives up.

The lack of graphic evidence doesn’t matter, he tries to convince himself. Junmyeon having a twin brother is all that matters. He pushes open the glass door to the garage and is immediately hit on the chest with a water balloon before he even properly steps inside.

“Welcome back, loser!”

Lu Han screams, it takes Yifan a while to spot Lu Han, but when he does spot him, he sees that Lu Han is running away from Minseok and Yixing while holding an armful of water balloons. Yifan is hit once again, this time by Minseok.

“Help me out my dude, these two teamed up on me!”

Lu Han yells, and the third water balloon which is sent his way by Yixing is what shakes Yifan out of his daze. He ducks his head just in time and closes the glass door shut before anything can go past the area that’s supposed to be dry. Lu Han hurriedly points him to where the water balloons are placed and Yifan rushes to the wide bucket and quickly retrieves some, immediately throwing them at Minseok and Yixing. Lu Han lets out a shriek of laughter when Minseok drops his balloons, he signals Yifan to attack Yixing and attack Yixing they both do. Poor kid ends up taking off his soaked white shirt and waving it around as a means of showing surrender. Yifan throws his last water balloon at Lu Han for revenge as Yixing leaves from the back door to change into a dry new shirt.

“I leave you guys alone for… Twelve minutes, to be precise.”

Says Junmyeon, entering the garage and holding his folder close to his chest. He raises his eyes from his watch and towards the trio, Yifan feels like Harry Potter being stared down by Professor McGonagall, Minseok is Hermione whereas Lu Han is Ron and Junmyeon is very clearly giving them the ‘ _Why Is It, When Something Happens, It Is Always You Three_ ’ look.

Memories from the morning rushes to Yifan’s mind and he blushes, suddenly shy to look Junmyeon in the face. He tries to convince himself that it was Junmyeon’s twin brother at the beach, but he fails. Junmyeon is standing before him in a yellow hoodie with pink doughnuts all over it, this time he’s wearing jean shorts and white Balenciaga shoes under. Yifan notices a birthmark by his knee and tries to recall whether the creature at the beach had the same one, he fails to retrieve anything other than a vivid vision of abs, which just makes him blush even harder.

“Are you okay?”

He hears Junmyeon ask, Yifan shrugs.

“Yeah, the weather and all.”

He babbles, the others do not pay him any mind.

-

The Auto Expo is approaching slowly, and Kim Junmyeon is radiating a huge amount of stress. It’s Yifan’s last day cleaning cars, but the whole team had agreed to stay back and help Junmyeon throughout the entire Auto Expo that his parents had simply just abandoned him with. He agrees to help Junmyeon close the place up that final night, the next day the people that will prepare the interior for the show will come and their little team is spared a break.

Yifan has agreed to stay back and help Junmyeon out; partially because he wanted to spend more time in presence of the cars, and partially because he wanted to spend time alone with Junmyeon. Even Yifan himself doesn’t know how his feelings started to emerge, all he knows is that he wants more of Junmyeon in his life now, and that he’s really into him.

They work in comfortable silence for a while, Yifan too tired to open his mouth and Junmyeon too busy humming songs to himself to bother speaking. He helps Junmyeon write down the schedule, calls the people Junmyeon needs to speak with and helps him keep track of all the workload. He’s come to admire Junmyeon nowadays, so young but so ambitious already, carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.

The clock strikes nine when they’re done and ready for the erratic tomorrow, the low yellow lights of the garage illuminates Junmyeon’s pretty features and his soft smile, Yifan sighs. They both lie down on the cold floor to cool down, Junmyeon’s the first to speak.

“Thanks for helping me out, you saved me from a mental breakdown.”

Yifan chuckles, the ceiling lights make him slightly dizzy.

“Of course. I wanted to spend more time with you.”

“You did?”

They don’t speak for a few seconds, Yifan nods his head awkwardly.

“Yeah.”

He hears Junmyeon chuckle after a while, he turns his face to look at the other and meets Junmyeon’s eyes.

“I’m glad you did. I don’t really have anyone that wants to spend more time with me.”

The confession catches Yifan off guard. He eyes Junmyeon’s face carefully, before he can say anything Junmyeon’s speaking again.

“I never had the time to make friends or mingle because I was always so immersed in work.”

He explains. Yifan’s brows furrow, he looks at Junmyeon with a serious expression.

“I’ll be your friend.”

He promises, Junmyeon smiles warmly.

-

Yifan doesn’t get a proper chance to speak with Junmyeon throughout the entire week of the Auto Expo. Trusting his in-depth knowledge about cars, Junmyeon assigns Yifan as an information guy for the front wing of the gallery and despite the lack of Junmyeon in his life Yifan is very happy to be working there in such close proximity of the cars that he admires so much.

From nine in the morning to five pm Yifan works and Junmyeon works even harder. Yifan catches glimpses of Junmyeon every now and then, escorting old men in fancy suits around the gallery, observing and taking notes, talking with people and signing things; all while wearing an expensive-looking suit and truly looking like a charming businessman. Rich businessmen were never his type, but they were now, apparently.

He finds Junmyeon alone on the last day of the first week of the show, right after the visiting hours have ended. Junmyeon looks stunning as always, but very slightly dishevelled and painfully soft; Yifan’s fingers itch to touch him.

“Hey,”

He greets him, Junmyeon replies with a small smile.

“Hi.”

His voice is a little rough, Yifan tugs on the hem of his own black button down.

“I was about to drink some herbal tea, and I wanted to get you a cup as well because you’ve been visibly tired and stressed, but I didn’t know whether you liked herbal tea, and then-“

“I like herbal tea.”

“Oh.”

Yifan blushes. He wants to punch himself in the face like a cartoon character for babbling again, but it’s the first time he’s seeing Junmyeon smile so brightly this week, he huffs out a sigh.

“What kind?”

Junmyeon takes a second to think about what to answer, in the end he tells Yifan that he’s okay with anything and Yifan leaves to get both of them chamomile tea.

“It calms down your nerves, you look like you could use a rest, too.”

Yifan explains when Junmyeon takes a sniff of the tea.

“Thank you.”

The latter mumbles, Yifan smiles. It’s nice being with Junmyeon although Yifan sometimes fails to function properly, but Junmyeon’s not exactly the most social person either so they work it out.

“Minseok suggested going to the beach on Sunday to celebrate a successful first week if we manage to go through Saturday without any problems.”

Yifan takes a sip from his beverage; hot drink, hot weather and hot guy-standing-right-next-to-me is not a very good combination. With the mention of the beach, the image of a particular toned torso makes its appearance in his mind again.

“I wanted to ask you myself, I’d love it if you came. My brother is coming as well, he’s curious about you.”

Yifan almost chokes on his drink but he somehow manages to play it off as a cough. Instead of making it obvious that he’s freaking out about Junmyeon telling his brother about him, he changes the direction of the conversation.

“You have a brother?”

He asks, as though he doesn’t know Junmyeon’s entire family tree from his scavenger hunt through his and his family’s social media. Yifan concludes that he really needs to get a life.

“Oh yeah, never mentioned him, did I?”

Junmyeon mumbles, more to himself, Yifan let out a very awkward chuckle.

“Yeah, I totally didn’t know you had a brother. Brand-new information.”

Junmyeon snorts.

“Why are you mocking me now, I’m a busy man, I forget things.”

Yifan’s about to start defending himself but Junmyeon doesn’t spare him the chance.

“I thought maybe Yixing had talked about him, since they’re dating and all.”

Now _that_ is actually brand-new information, Yifan frowns in confusion.

“Yixing’s what now?”

Junmyeon’s eyes fly open, he scans Yifan’s face carefully.

“Yixing, he’s dating my twin brother.”

He says one by one, as if to make sure Yifan understands the situation correctly. Yifan thinks about the abs and Yixing and then, inevitably, Yixing and Junmyeon. His face scrunches up, he doesn’t want Yixing to be with Junmyeon, or _a_ Junmyeon. He wants all the Junmyeons to himself only.

“I mean…”

Junmyeon looks panicked and Yifan cannot really understand why, he blinks his eyes and waits for the other to continue.

“It’s not like they’re secretive about their relationship or anything, I mean they’re both very openly gay. Like, _very_ openly. I mean-“

“Jun-“

“I mean, so am I.”

“Oh.”

Oh. Yifan’s eyes widen in surprise with the sudden confession and he almost drops his paper cup of chamomile tea when Junmyeon _blushes_. He notes that Junmyeon has a habit of blurting out confessions about himself.

“It’s- it’s alright.”

He says awkwardly. Junmyeon must have misinterpreted his frowning because he takes a few steps away and starts looking around wildly as if he’s trying to find a way to flee the situation.

“Like, more than alright. Like – Junmyeon, I’m _so_ gay.”

They’re both silent for a second before Junmyeon cracks up. The uneasiness is still there, but at least Junmyeon is laughing now.

“Okay.”

He tells Yifan between giggles, his body relaxing with every huff of laughter.

“This has been sufficiently awkward.”

“Yeah, well, awkward is like a personality trait of mine, so…”

He trails off, blushing wildly, and Junmyeon chuckles.

“Yifan,”

He starts, looking up at the taller male. He has dark circles under his eyes, Yifan really wants nothing more than to tuck Junmyeon into the bed.

“I’ll see you at the beach on Sunday, yeah? We’ll talk the details later.”

Yifan nods, not feeling like making eye contact. Junmyeon gets an important phone call and their herbal tea session ends.

-

Yifan has never been the type to rebel out and break rules, he’s always been a goody-two-shoes and a mama’s boy; so it’s no surprise he never stayed out past sundown, which is his curfew. They wrap up the first week of the Auto Expo successfully and on Sunday, after rolling around in their respective beds and resting until they have too much unused energy stored in their bodies, they meet up.

It’s just a few minutes past sunset when Yifan makes his appearance, he’s welcomed by a very underage Minseok holding a bottle of beer. While his first instinct is to call his mother to come pick him up, he decides against it and settles down next to Junmyeon, who also has a bottle in his hand.

“Ah, here you are! I’ve been waiting for you.”

Junmyeon greets him, Yifan is glad the sun is already down because he immediately blushes. Junmyeon offers him a bottle, he looks at it hesitantly but accepts it anyway. He doesn’t have much drinking experience, he only drank with his family and never with his friends, never outdoors in public and never without adult supervision. He feels rebellious when he uncaps the drink.

It turns out that they’re not without adult supervision, Junmyeon’s car driver is babysitting them from afar, but Yifan doesn’t mind it, underage drinking in a public place is not exactly a good thing to do. He meets Junmyeon’s twin brother and is shocked to find out that they’re not identical twins, that Baekhyun looks nothing like Junmyeon. Under the light of this freshly acquired knowledge he’s now dying to know whether it was Junmyeon he saw on the beach that one day a few weeks ago. But he’s still a bit too shy to ask Junmyeon such a question directly.

Yifan doesn’t really know how it happens, but one thing he knows he’s sitting on the sand, drinking light beer and the next thing he knows he has his arms wrapped around Junmyeon’s waist and they’re swaying to the music playing from Junmyeon’s car’s speakers. Baekhyun and Yixing are making out by the back of the car and Minseok and Lu Han have wondered off to God knows where, the stars are out, they’re all very tipsy.

Junmyeon looks beautiful with the flush on his cheeks and his eyes sparkling, Yifan finds himself sighing.

“I have something I want to tell you, but you have to promise not to make fun of me.”

He starts with a little help from his friend liquid courage, Junmyeon nods seriously.

“Shoot.”

Yifan looks away at first, the blush spreads from his cheeks to down his neck and all over his chest.

“I think I have a crush on you – no, wait, I _do_ have a crush on you.”

It’s all so suddenly, like the way Junmyeon does confessions, Yifan thinks this is the only appropriate way to open up to Junmyeon; by doing it his style. A weight is lifted off his shoulders after his confession, but a different kind of weight pulls him down when Junmyeon starts looking at him with an expression Yifan really can’t interpret.

“Yeah?”

Is all Junmyeon says, Yifan nods.

“A week or two ago I saw you at the beach, I don’t understand why you wear sweaters and stuff all the time, you’re _so_ hot.”

He babbles on, Junmyeon lets out a loud bark of laughter, clearly finding Tipsy Yifan amusing.

“I like sweaters. Don’t you like me in sweaters as well?”

Yifan rolls his eyes at the teasing, but he still replies.

“I do.”

He admits, Junmyeon grins.

-

It’s not hard to avoid Junmyeon throughout the rest of the Auto Expo, because he’s busier than ever, and Yifan actually ends up regretting shying out and avoiding him the first place. They properly meet on the last day of the show, for all Yifan’s been freaking out about, Junmyeon only sends a shy smile his way.

It really upsets Yifan that nothing happens between him and Junmyeon after his confession. It is understandable, considering the fact that they’re both awkward people, but it also feels like a rejection. His job at Gallery Antares ends with the car show and he decides to take a two-week break before applying to new summer jobs. He almost calls or texts Junmyeon a few times, but he never actually does the act.

His cousin Zitao comes over, which cheers Yifan up a little. They go to the beach early in the morning and then go out for jogs together at the park near his house. They run into Lu Han and Minseok one morning, Lu Han challenges them to a game of beach volleyball and Zitao never being the one to back down from a challenge, accepts.

Two days later, Yifan and Zitao meet up with Minseok and Lu Han at the beach at noon for volleyball.

“Did you know Myeon and Baek do lifeguarding nowadays?”

Lu Han starts, Yifan feels a shiver run down his spine.

”We should invite them to play with us.”

Minseok suggests and before Yifan can even open his mouth Lu Han is nodding excitedly.

Yifan loses the game of rock-paper-scissors and he is sent to a convenience store to buy ice cream for everyone. It’s so hot outside, very sunny and very humid, almost suffocating; so Yifan unwraps his popsicle beforehand. He’s walking to the section of the beach in which volleyball nets are set up and where his friends were waiting for him, the popsicle is helping him cool down a little.

“There he is!”

He hears a familiar voice, Baekhyun, he notes. His eyes soon land on the said owner of the voice and then right next to him is Kim Junmyeon, in all his shirtless glory; Yifan abruptly stops dead in his tracks.

“Ice cream, now!”

Lu Han yells but Yifan cannot make his limbs move. Junmyeon looks even better than the first time Yifan had seen him; he’s a lot more tanned now, lifeguarding visibly and clearly doing him good. Something flickers in Junmyeon’s gaze when they make eye contact and suddenly, he’s pacing towards Yifan and Yifan is panicking.

“Yifan,”

He starts. His eyes travel from Yifan’s eyes down his chest.

“Your popsicle is melting.”

Indeed his popsicle has melted over his hand. Yifan flushes in embarrassment.

**Author's Note:**

> you can find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/nexomimichan) and [wattpad](https://www.wattpad.com/user/nekomimichan)  
> thank you for reading^^


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